Expedition 278 - 17th November 2102
Doire an Damh (Derrydaff)

 


We had to miss a Saturday since I had the collywobbles and this was really no day to be out on the hills, but out we went anyway. We had five explorers, Alexander, Fern, Parker, Roscoe and Rowan, plus five helpers, Howard, Liz, Mairi, Philippa and Sharon and two dogs, Ellie and Hamish.

Before setting off I showed the explorers a fine growth of a fungus in one of the Triangle beech trees, possibly a Lentinellus. The middle of the tree was quite rotten and it looks as if it could fall any time.

We all drove up to the forestry gate and got ourselves organised with waterproof gear. We followed the track up to the viewpoint, but the trees are growing fast and the view is less than it used to be; we were able to see Langal in the rain anyway. We had a discussion about the name Doire an Damh, and I looked it up later: it seems to mean the grove of the stag or ox; nowadays they pronounce it Derrydaff. There were requests for a wafer but it was too soon and we squelched back to the track and continued through the rain.

It seemed a long way to the big ruined house but eventually we got there and everyone gathered round as I explained how the people who lived there used bent timbers called crucks to hold up the roof without the need for joists, which would have got in the way. This house is one of very few locally which still retain pairs of cruck slots where these timbers were fitted into the stone wall.
Ignoring further requests for a stop we left the track and went down the hill through a strange group of lichen-covered birches and eventually we reached a big oak tree where we stopped for the break.

The oak tree was the site of an unfortunate accident - an owl nesting box had been fixed to one of the big branches but unfortunately that was the only branch to fall, bringing down the owl box with it. Most of the other branches were pretty sound and soon there were explorers clambering about in the air.
I think we could have found more oaks if we continued into the woods but the ground was very difficult and we all came back up to the track and continued that way.

Eventually it all became too uncomfortable to go on and we turned back towards the gate again. At the bottom of the hill we saw a big spruce tree which seemed to be sick, the only live needles were right at the ends of the branches, but maybe it was a rare kind of spruce that always grows like that, I will have to ask an expert.
We got some fine drawings at the Blue Parrot, two of them featuring the big oak tree: Alexander did a view of the tree showing the weak branch with the nest box under it, and Roscoe did a stylized representation of the tree with himself standing next to it, a remarkable effort for a three-year old (incidentally I watched him do it - all his own work); he did well even to make the walk.

John Dye








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